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Queensland tiger
This article is about the '''marsupial lion from Australia'. You may be looking for the similarly-named Thylacine. Thylacoleo, known popularly as the Marsupial Lion and known to Aboriginals as the Yarri, is a species of marsupial predator from Australia, officially extinct in the Early Holocene. However, sightings still persist, especially around Queensland. Notably, some eyewitnesses have noted a forward-facing tuft on the animals tailThe Quest for Thylacoleo. In 2008, long after the first of the sightings involving tufts, an Aboriginal cave painting was found depicting Thylacoleo with a tufted tailAntiquity Journal. Sightings have also noted nocturnal behaviour, and the cave paintings details also seem to suggest a nocturnal lifestyle. Name etymology Thylacoleo means "pouch lion" in Latin, whilst carnifex means "murderous", "meat-cutting", or "butcher". Physical appearance and biology Thylacoleo is a powerful, stockily built animal with a short, lion-like head. Its body is short and it has long legs, creating a disproportional effect. The tail is like that of a Thylacine, but thicker and a little shorter. The tail also had a small white, forward-facing tuft on its tip. It also has short fur. Notable physical adaptations include an opposable, clawed thumb, and specialised shearing teeth at the front of the mouth. Many various colours and patterns are reported, ranging from patternless tan, brown and black, with some sightings reporting stripes or spots, sometimes darker, sometimes lighter. This suggests a wide range of colours from individual to individual. The head is round and somewhat oversized, with eyes of varying size (usually large) and rounded or triangular ears. It is supported by a thick and powerful neck. Overall, Thylacoleo is an extremely powerful and stocky animal, packed full of muscle and highly disproportionate. Behaviour and traits History Overview Many dead animals are commonly found in the bush. Some of these are decapitated, and any may be the work of Thylacoleo. Sometimes these larger kills are found in trees - no living native predator could do this. Sightings of Thylacoleo like animals are commonThe Quest for Thylacoleo. The sightings listed here are the most notable or famous. Historical Officially, Thylacoleo went extinct forty-six thousand years ago, but two cave paintings are dated to much later, circa ten thousand years ago - when most global megafauna went extinct due to human causes. Either way, humans certainly encountered the animal in historic times, and were responsible for its (supposed) extintion. The human involvement was most likely indirect - the large prey animals were all killed by human settlers. It is unlikely than anyone would intentionally seek out and kill such a dangerous animal. Historical Thylacoleo encounters are almost certainly behind the Aboriginal 'legend' of the Drop Bear. Another Aboriginal legend describes the Yarri, a fast and dedadly predator. This is almost ceratinly Thylacoleo. circa 1800's Around the 1800's, a farmer sighted two Thylacoleo. They fled at extreme speedsWhere Light Meets Dark - Singleton Thylacoleo. 1994 A film was taken at a railway in 1994. It shows a stocky, short-tailed animal with a distinctive gait and deep, boxy head runs alongside some overgrown railway tracks. The animal looks unusual and one could probably convince himself that it doesn’t represent a big cat, feral dog or a member of any other known species. However, as is typical for footage of this sort, the animal is at a distance, the footage is fuzzy, and consequently it’s probably not possible to say for sure just what the animal isThe Cryptozoologist. 2002 A Thylacoleo was sighted in 2002 near a coop in Gilderoy. It ignored the eyewitnessesYowie Hunters. 2005 A farmer, searching for a missing cow in 2005, found that it had been severely wounded by a broad-headed predator, present at the scene, that “seemed to have some marsupial-like attributes” being long-bodied, short-legged and long and thick in the tail. The creature had also killed the cow’s calfThe Cryptozoologist. 2007 : Main article: Singleton Giant Quoll. The Singleton Giant Quoll is almost universally speculated to be a ThylacoleoWhere Light Meets Darn - Singleton Thylacoleo.. The ony difference between it and Thylacoleo is that the quoll had a longer muzzle. 2008 Roadkill In the December of 2008, a woman named Jennifer was driving through Castlereagh Hwy, near Pearson's Lookout between the towns of Capertee and Ilford, in a large truck. Whilst driving, she passed two dead animals together - a kangaroo, and another, unidentified animal akin to a lion cub. She described it as followsBig Cat WitnessesCentre for Fortean Zoology - Thylacoleo Roadkill in NSW?. : "The markings on the torso of the other animal were dark brown / black and the main colour was tan. The markings made me look closer and the carcass was intact. The ears were rounded, the head was stout and like a lion cub and the front paws were huge in comparison to it's body size. The back paws and tail were obscured because of the position it landed in after being run over. (probably feeding on the small roo). My first thoughts were of a small lion, but the dark marking's threw me. It was a thick set animal about 500 - 600mm long. For the rest of the trip to Sydney (2.75 hrs) I couldn't stop wondering what this thing was, and having told the story to several people, I still couldn't come up with a logical explanation." Image gallery Physical reconstructions : See Thylacoleo image gallery. Artistic reconstructions : See Thylacoleo image gallery. Physical evidence : See Thylacoleo image gallery. Notes and references Category:Cryptids Category:Carnivorous cryptids Category:Cryptids from Australia Category:Prehistoric cryptids